NEW YORK CITY — Julie Coker, a tourism executive from Wilmington, now runs the tourism operations for the largest city in the United States: New York City.
Julie Coker now serves as the CEO and President of New York City Tourism + Conventions, after working as the leader of the San Diego Tourism Authority and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau.
She is taking on the operations of one of the largest tourism economies in the country. In 2023, restaurants, hotels, events and shows reported to have generated $74 billion in economic impact and supported 380,000 workers.
She is also tasked with not only leading marketing efforts for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America next year, but also a special anniversary for the city itself. New York City was founded 400 years ago in 1625. In addition, New York City will also see tens of thousands of soccer fans arrive to watch one of the FIFA World Cup games.
Those factors, along with the slow ramp-up of longer vacations since the COVID-19 pandemic waned from memory, are major drivers for what Julie Coker describes as the next two biggest years for New York City.
“Last year, we hit 64.3 million visitors and 13 million of them were international. So, while it was not a record-breaking year, we’re certainly getting back on track to pre-2020 levels,” Coker told the Delaware Business Times. “That’s not even taking into account the anniversaries that will happen with Broadway and the completion of the $165 million renovation of the Empire State Building, or new art exhibits and restaurants.”
“When I’ve been talking with people, the message is clear: New York is back. And it’s great to hear,” she added.
Before Coker arrived at New York City Tourism + Conventions, she grew up in Wilmington – or what she calls affectionately, “south Philadelphia,” a mere 90-minute drive from her new office. As the daughter of activist Beatrice “Bebe” Ross Coker, she grew up on Van Buren Street in a predominantly Black neighborhood that was a few steps away from P.S. Dupont High School in north Wilmington and she watched her older sister get bussed out to Brandywine High School.
Eventually, Bebe Coker moved the family out to Hockessin for two years and Coker went to A.I. du Pont High School for junior high school. After Julie Coker passed the ninth grade, the family went back to north Wilmington.
“It was the best of both worlds. In Hockessin, you had the space, but I remember in Wilmington, everyone played kickball together and we’d run errands at the old A&P for our parents,” Coker said. “We saw our city council members and our U.S. Senators at the grocery story. It just had a great neighborhood feel to it. I tell people where I go, Delaware’s a great place to raise a family.”
Julie Coker also learned how to forge her own path by watching her mother, who used her work in the arts and in social services to address systemic racism in Wilmington. Bebe Coker was also tapped by Gov. Pete du Pont to serve on the commission that led the way for desegregation of schools.
“I absolutely never thought of a glass ceiling for females. My mom was very active on both sides of the aisle. She could meet with Gov. du Pont in the morning and have conversations with [then-U.S. Sen.] Joe Biden in the evening. In Delaware, it was all just community,” Julie Coker said.
She can also credit Wilmington for her first job in tourism. When she was a high school junior, she landed a job at Mr. Steak on Lea Boulevard. But Coker also said that her high school counselor sat her down and talked about more opportunities in hospitality, like degrees in hotel and restaurant management. She eventually worked her way up at Mr. Steak to the smoking section where customers stayed longer and paid more in tip and started training new staff members.
Coker’s boss at the time tried to urge her to stay as a manager and eventually take over the restaurant.
“That really put me on the path of supervisory management and the focus of service. That was the seed that followed me to my days at Johnson & Wales University,” she said.
The now-executive level leader put herself through school by working as a hotel cleaner and she’s continued to keep those workers in mind when making any decision from the corner office. In 1989, she began her executive career as a corporate management trainee at Hyatt Regency Columbus. Over time, she held several roles including front office manager, hotel assistant manager, assistant executive housekeeper and general manager.
In 2016, Coker became the president and CEO of Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau where tourism was one of the city’s largest employment sectors. Under her leadership, the PHLCVB brought in 1.3 million visitors and $500 million in economic impact in 2018. She was also part of the coalition of tourism officials that lobbied to bring a FIFA 2026 World Cup match to Philadelphia and oversaw the city’s hospitality sector’s efforts to host the 2016 Democratic Convention.
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Coker left PHLCVB to become the CEO of San Diego Tourism Authority. But because the pandemic rocked the world and crippled the fly-to destinations and restaurants, she delayed her start time and her salary by three months.
Her long career in hospitality saw many downturns, including working as a general manager of a hotel in Chicago during 9/11 and the Afghan war of 1992 which resulted in mass layoffs in hotels. In many ways, the pandemic reminded Coker of those days, but she also said many of the lessons learned will remain for years to come.
“We’ve learned about efficiency and how to lean into technology, and how to make the experience stronger so there aren’t long lines or other barriers. It’s also about understanding safety and travel are not mutually exclusive,” she said.
In San Diego, the tourism authority found through studies that people missed travel and often used the time to rediscover their own cities through “staycations” to revisit forgotten gems for locals like the zoo or the USS Midway Museum. That was also the case in Delaware, a famous drive-to destination for neighboring states, and in Philadelphia where residents went back to Liberty Bell or the Constitution Hall.
“We heard a lot about places some haven’t gone to since they were a child. We leaned into that, and as destination marketers, we re-learned how important it was to collaborate. We were talking to the health department and other businesses to find ways to bring the community together in safe ways,” she said. “Those partnerships can really be expanded to think more locally.”
